I stood by Father's office in our vast school corridor, waiting for Father as well as my other team mates to arrive. I had come way ahead of the given time and there wasn't any  trace of a single human being around the whole campus. The school was yet to reopen after the summer break and it totally justified the errie of silence around me which was really absurd as I was just accustomed to seeing rush all over the place, during the heavy school days. I was getting impatient with the passing seconds but no one except the two janitors passed by me who by the way, threw kind of weird glances at me. I looked down at my outfit in confusion. I was wearing a white crop top(which required a lot of begging from my mother's part—she believed that I was becoming monotonous with my dressing sense only with those baggy hoodies and tee shirt and my only ripped jeans) and a skinny jeans—which surprisingly made my legs look longer than I had thought they would— and my black sling bag hung from my left shoulder. My hand gripped the handle of my luggage bag tightly as the cold morning breeze swept a few loose curls away from face, making the hairs on my neck stand—my hair being pulled up in a tight horse tail.

Gazing over my wrist watch I sighed. Damn! It was only eight fifteen whereas we were supposed to meet at the same place at eight forty five. I still had almost half an hour to spend in solitude, with not even a bird lurking around. I cursed my restlessness and excitement which didn't let me sleep the other night while strolling through the corridor and then back to my original place. Well I had reasons. Partly due to the championship and the whole idea of meeting and staying a week with new faces whom we had to compete with and partly for coming face to face with Randhir again. The occurences of the night before, clouded my mind and I blushed on my own. Wow, even his thoughts made me blush. I sighed yet again, sliding my back on the wall adjacent to Father's office. I definitely should have slept a bit the other night but by the time I reached home, it was already midnight and the butterflies in my stomach didn't let me sleep even a wink. I lied dead awake in my bed and I swore I looked like a freaking panda then. Ironically, pandas spent more than half of their lifetime, sleeping!

Mom woke up earlier than I had thought and she helped me with the last minute chores in the morning. Sure I felt a bit edgy leaving Mom alone in that apartment alone for a whole week but I had no other option. I had asked the aunty next door to check on Mom every now and then. After kissing my Mom goodbye, I started for the school by foot. The night before, Randhir had been adamant on picking me up for school but I kept on denying  him thoroughly. The look on his face did make me regret my tone right then but I really didn't want him to put his efforts on someone like me. I knew he had already meddled a lot in my life and it might be that, even he was getting attached to me but there was one thing that pricked me right the moment I was introduced to his family members. I realised that a snobby and clumsy girl like me could never fit into their world. He would get innumerous other girls and also great opportunities in his life with his charming personality but I couldn't afford to get hurt by my first ever crush when I had almost nothing to lose.

One direction 'Perfect' blasted through my earphones and I didn't even realise when my eyes started drooping.

"She looks so peaceful.."

"Shut up.."

"Why is she sleeping here?"

"Shut up.."

"Maybe her Mom kicked her out of the apartment.."

"Shut up..."

"Wait, is that a Gucci bag?"

"Shut up..."

"Can we please wake her up..?"

"Shut up..."

"Where is my other suitcase?"

"WILL YOU IDIOTS SHUT THE FÜCK UP!"

I sprang my eyes open at the sudden roar. The murmurings were in anyways getting on my nerves when I was trying to snuggle in light sleep into the.. err floor? I felt cold. And the constant mantra of "Shut up" was, well,damn irritating! Though I surely knew the voices murmuring from the past few minutes. I wasn't in deep slumber or anything. It was just that I wanted to stay in that position for a bit more and see their reactions, I mean why miss all the fun? The scream at the end wasn't definitely ear soothing though. Damn I felt so strained at that moment that all I wanted to do was jump into my comfy bed, cuddle my side pillow and sleep!

The first thing that my eyes fell onto was Randhir's face–dangerously close to mine, that almost made me gasp. Okay, he might be the one shutting everyone out. He was looking at me with a weird expression and that was when I noticed that he practically had his arms around me–one on the back and another one under my knee. Was he gonna pick me up? Did I just lose the opportunity of getting picked by him?  oh well!

"Hey Sanyukta... Good morning.." The next thing I noticed after craning my neck towards Parth's voice was the whole group gawking at me as if I had grown two heads. Vidushi was smirking my way (that girl!) and Sanaya looked, well umm..pissed (What was she sulking over?). Tanya and Aryan were standing a bit far from where the whole group had crowded. Dhruv and Parth had amusing smile playing on their lips and when I turned to Randhir, he seemed to be in a daze but still had his arms around me. Major facepalms followed. They had already arrived and had their luggage with them and I thought that I had been sleeping for five minutes or something. It sure as hell was spooky how time flied.

"Good mornin'.." I couldn't believe how groggy I sounded then.

"Well group.." I jolted out of Randhir's hold instantly and hurried to stand up only to twist my ankle and fall back in his arms. He caught me in the nick of time, thank god! And that proved how much clumsy I was actually. It was a good thing that I didn't create a scene by falling on my butt in front of the group and err.. Father, who  stood few steps ahead of us, facing us weirdly.

Muttering a quite thanks, I straightened my frame.
Everyone darted their attention back to Father and I tried to break out of Randhir's arms which were still caging me.

"The bus has already arrived and I hope you are all packed and ready to go now.." Father said while eyeing me and Randhir for a longer second. He still hadn't removed his hold around my waist and by his expression, I was sure that he was enjoying my constant squirms. That jerk! He had his stupid yet sexy smirk playing on his lips and I tried to swat his hand away from me, getting redder each second.

"Let go my damned waist Randhir" I gritted out in anger whereas his smirk widened. That was when my inner self took it's leisure to gulp in his appearance that morning. He had a blue v neck tee shirt on and his ripped jeans were all the way lying low on his hips.  His duffle bag hung from his shoulder and to add to his charm, his hair was unruly done, making him look ounces more sexier than he actually was in mid days or nights. The topper boy definitely knew style!  He looked exceptionally attractive to me that morning. What? He was my hot-shot-enemy-turned-crush anyway.

"Now, now. We won't like our little damsel in distress to fall down when her  knight in shining armour is standing right next to her, would we? Haven't you heard of 'Prevention is better than cure'?" He whispered huskily in my ears, pulling me closer to his warm side, making my body shiver. I instantly decided that I liked flirty Randhir way better than arrogant Randhir.

Heck! He was the only person who made me feel like slapping the crap out of him for being such a jerk but the same time, snog the daylight out of him.

I had lost it already, hadn't I?

"I have handed all the instructions and series of programs to Mr.Mehra who will be your guide throughout the championship. I will attend as soon as the program starts.." We nodded to Father's words. I noticed a slight spark in his eyes when he spoke. He looked very hopeful and  determined with us going to the championship. The feeling created a hollow in my stomach. What if we couldn't stand upto his aspirations? I darted my gaze towards my mates and a sudden booze of confidence erupt within me when I viewed their relaxed yet determined faces. But how can they even keep so calm?

"You alright?" I felt something warm on my neck and jolted out of my trance instantly only to realise that Randhir had almost dug his face into my hairs. I tried to push him of yet again. Father was almost gawking at us then, for heaven's sake!

"Leave me you doofus!" I whisper-yelled  while throwing daggers through my eyes at him but his hold on me went tighter and he smirked gloriously at that.

"No I like this position.." He passed me a sly smile, looking right into my widened eyes. His eyes were sparkling with mischief. Oh and I felt butterflies all over again then!

"Ahem.."  We were thrown back to the real world by Dhruv's nudge and he practically rolled his eyes to show us that Father was still standing there.

"Mr.Shekhawat, It will be great for us now if you could save up your sudden  overflowing affection towards Ms. Aggarwal for the journey.." Father passed Randhir a pointed gaze while speaking.

"Now scoot everyone!" He clapped his hands and dismissed us.

I broke apart from Randhir's hold and glared at him. By then, all of our mates were already staggering out of the corridor with their suitcases.

"What the heck were you trying to do?" I bellowed while grabbing my bag pack tightly.

"To show Father how much we have bonded well so that he won't have any second thoughts about us winning the competition.." And then in a snap of fingers, his flirty demeanour was gone and replaced by that cocky guy. Like seriously gone! whoosh! His answer forced me to roll my eyes.

"In that cheap manner?" I questioned feeling ridiculously astounded.

He didn't answer but he did audaciously wink at me. That guy! It wasn't his issue that his wink even had the capacity of flooring me. I was freaking flushed.

I stifled the arousing groan from my throat, thinking it to be worthless to retort at that moment. I saw him grab his bag and brush past me, whistling in a cool manner. Seriously. When was that guy growing up?

I was about to start walking in his direction when Vidushi popped up in front of me suddenly. I gasped in horror at her sudden appearance and clutched my throbbing chest.

She still had that smug expression plastered on her face which almost made me want to rip out her perfectly shaped teeth. Almost.

"What's the hurry baby? You know right that I know that we all know what is going on between you two rivals?" She winked my way while flipping her hair lock.

I groaned at her curiosity. Surely it was normal for others to ponder over the sudden closeness between the two most famous so called enemies of St. Louis.

"I don't want to talk about it Vids.." I tried to brush past her but she grabbed my forearm before I could scoot away.

"I know but I want to.. But that isn't what I need to talk to you about.." She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. Somehow, I sensed trouble.

WHAT DID SHE DO AGAIN?

Well, I wasn't to be blamed. She was a walking package of troubles.

I instantly jolted my attention towards her frame, inspecting her face for any sort of anxiety, jumpiness, stress, or I-am-screwed-Sanyukta-please-help-me expression but she maintained that poker face.

"What?" I narrowed my eyes at her. She sighed.

"I know you suck at socializing and I would probably regret this decision of asking you afterwards but..." She scrunched her nose at the socializing part and then took a long pause before resuming her speech and looked at me hopefully. Oh I immediately knew where her words were heading to.

"Please come to a party with me.. pretty please.. please please please.." I rolled my eyes at her and shook my head nonchalantly. What the heck was with teenagers and their craze for parties? I was a teenager but I liked to stay miles away from all those alcohol filled gathering of people who'd miss a person dying next to them only to rub against each other and no, there wasn't any issue if the person they were rubbing onto was of the same sex. Yeah Eww.

"Vidu.." I took a deep breath and put my palms on either of her shoulder.

"NO!" She instantly broke my cage and started to jump in her place.

"You have to come! Come on please don't be a party pooper! You have to come!"

"Okay SHUT UP!" I shrieked and she jumped on me.

"You said yes? You are coming? yeah? Thank you so much! THANK YOU THANK YOU!" She hugged me tight, making me gag for a bit.

"Woah! I didn't say that I'll come! How the heck are we supposed to go to a party when we are just seconds away from starting our journey for the freaking championship?" I broke the hug and glared at her to which she grinned sheepishly. Woah, Was I missing something?

"There's the catch Sany.." She beamed and twirled her hair lock again. I narrowed my eyes at her feeling highly suspicious.

"The main group of the school which we are visiting are hosting the party in one of their team mate's house and all the other school's teams are invited.. Think about the awesome chance for our team to initiate our strategy Sany! We could know everything needed for the competition and penetrate through their weaknesses too. And just for saying, who would say no to free alcohol?" She winked at the last part but surely the first half of her speech put me into thought.

That was indeed a good opportunity.

**********************************

TBC

@ladhida Girl, you lightened up my day with those cute little comments of yours in each sentence. And I hope that this dedication did justice to your detailed review on the other parts.

Love

Hola people!

Probably the year didn't come out to be that great for me. My cell broke and I had to draft it in the laptop, which explains the late update (though I am famous for being a lazy bee anyways). It's not proof read, so please do ignore the errors. I will start editing the parts as soon as I get a new phone.

Till then,

Hugs and kisses <3